4,039. 10/5/2002

“On October 5 [2002], [CIA director George] Tenet…[read] a draft of the President’s [Bush’s] upcoming speech slated for two days hence in Cincinnati [Ohio], and carrying the claim that Saddam Hussein’s ‘regime has been caught attempting to purchase’ uranium in Niger. The CIA immediately fired off a memo to Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley and presidential speechwriter Mike Gerson that the statement was wrong. Another letter the next day–this one also addressed to [National Security Advisor Condoleezza] Rice–repeated that the evidence on Niger was weak and that any such purchase, in any event, would not have been particularly significant since Saddam already had a large yellowcake supply that he could not process into anything usable.”